Radio resource aggregation with suspend/resume support

ABSTRACT

This disclosure relates to temporary suspension, and subsequent resumption, of radio resource aggregation in a wireless communication system. A wireless device may establish a communication link with a base station. The communication link with the base station may aggregate radio resources according to a first wireless communication technology and a second wireless communication technology. Use by the communication link of radio resources according to the second wireless communication technology may be suspended. Wireless communication activity according to the second wireless communication technology that is not associated with the communication link may be performed while use by the communication link of radio resources according to the second wireless communication technology is suspended. Use by the communication link of radio resources according to the second wireless communication technology may be resumed after performing the wireless communication activity according to the second wireless communication technology.

PRIORITY INFORMATION

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent applicationSer. No. 62/253,927, entitled “Radio Resource Aggregation withSuspend/Resume Support,” filed Nov. 11, 2015, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety as though fully and completelyset forth herein.

FIELD

The present application relates to wireless communication systems,including techniques for aggregating radio resources of multiple radioaccess technologies with support for temporary suspension and resumptionof radio resource aggregation.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Wireless communication systems are rapidly growing in usage.Additionally, there exist numerous different wireless communicationtechnologies and standards. Some examples of wireless communicationstandards include GSM, UMTS (associated with, for example, WCDMA orTD-SCDMA air interfaces), LTE, LTE Advanced (LTE-A), HSPA, 3GPP2CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE 802.11 (WLAN orWi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), Bluetooth, and others. While sometechniques for coordinating between different wireless communicationtechnologies exist, interworking mechanisms are generally not very welldeveloped, and so improvements in the field would be desirable.

SUMMARY

Embodiments are presented herein of methods for aggregating radioresources of multiple wireless communication technologies and forsupporting temporary suspension and resumption of such radio resourceaggregation, and of devices configured to implement the methods.

According to the techniques described herein, a wireless device and abase station may establish a communication link thataggregates/integrates radio resources of multiple wireless communicationtechnologies. For example, the base station may provide radio resourcesaccording to a cellular communication technology to the wireless device,and a collocated or non-collocated access point communicatively coupledto the base station may provide radio resources according to a wirelesslocal area networking technology to the wireless device. The basestation may manage the communication link, e.g., including determiningwhich data is communicated between the wireless device and the basestation using the cellular communication technology, and which data iscommunicated between the wireless device and the base station using thewireless local area networking technology (e.g., by way of theco-located or non-co-located access point).

At some point while the communication link is established, the wirelessdevice may determine to perform wireless communication activityaccording to the wireless local area networking technology that is notassociated with the communication link. For example, the wireless devicemay periodically perform data exchanges with a paired device, and/orscan for other available access points, using the same wirelessinterface as is used to perform wireless local area networkingcommunication in conjunction with the communication link. In such acase, it is proposed herein that the wireless device be able to suspendthe use of the wireless local area networking technology by thecommunication link with the base station, in a manner that allows forquickly resuming use of the wireless local area networking technology bythe communication link with the base station after completion of theother wireless communication activity.

For example, a set of suspend/resume signaling indications may bedefined, and may be provided by the wireless device to the base stationto indicate when to suspend radio resource aggregation by thecommunication link with the base station, and when to resume radioresource aggregation by the communication link with the base station.While the radio resource aggregation is suspended, the wireless deviceand the base station may maintain the radio resources according to thewireless local area networking technology associated with thecommunication link (but may choose not to communicate data using them),such that when the wireless device indicates to the base station toresume radio resource aggregation, both the cellular communicationtechnology and the wireless local area networking technology may be usedto communicate data without requiring the wireless device to establishthe wireless local area networking aspect of the communication link denovo.

The techniques described herein may be implemented in and/or used with anumber of different types of devices, including but not limited tocellular base stations, access point devices, cellular phones, tabletcomputers, wearable computing devices, portable media players, and anyof various other computing devices.

This Summary is intended to provide a brief overview of some of thesubject matter described in this document. Accordingly, it will beappreciated that the above-described features are merely examples andshould not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the subjectmatter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, andadvantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparentfrom the following Detailed Description, Figures, and Claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present subject matter can be obtainedwhen the following detailed description of the embodiments is consideredin conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example base station (BS) in communication with anexample user equipment (UE) device, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a UE, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a BS, according to someembodiments;

FIGS. 5-6 illustrate exemplary non-collocated and collocated networkdeployment scenarios, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary communication flow for establishingradio resource aggregation, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary non-collocated network deploymentscenario in which a wireless device also wishes to establish a wirelesslink with one or more other devices, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary communication flow for interleaving acommunication with another device with radio resource aggregationcommunication with a network without suspend/resume procedures,according to some embodiments; and

FIGS. 10-11 illustrate exemplary communication flow for interleaving acommunication with another device with radio resource aggregationcommunication with a network with suspend/resume procedures, accordingto some embodiments.

While the features described herein may be susceptible to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof areshown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described indetail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to be limiting to the particularform disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover allmodifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spiritand scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Acronyms

The following acronyms are used in the present disclosure.

3GPP: Third Generation Partnership Project

3GPP2: Third Generation Partnership Project 2

GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications

UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

LTE: Long Term Evolution

WLAN: Wireless Local Area Networking

Terms

The following is a glossary of terms used in this disclosure:

Memory Medium—Any of various types of non-transitory computer accessiblememory devices or storage devices. The term “memory medium” is intendedto include an installation medium, e.g., a CD-ROM, floppy disks, or tapedevice; a computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM,DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; a non-volatile memory such asa Flash, magnetic media, e.g., a hard drive, or optical storage;registers, or other similar types of memory elements, etc. The memorymedium may include other types of non-transitory memory as well orcombinations thereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in afirst computer system in which the programs are executed, or may belocated in a second different computer system that connects to the firstcomputer system over a network, such as the Internet. In the latterinstance, the second computer system may provide program instructions tothe first computer for execution. The term “memory medium” may includetwo or more memory mediums that may reside in different locations, e.g.,in different computer systems that are connected over a network. Thememory medium may store program instructions (e.g., embodied as computerprograms) that may be executed by one or more processors.

Carrier Medium—a memory medium as described above, as well as a physicaltransmission medium, such as a bus, network, and/or other physicaltransmission medium that conveys signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals.

Programmable Hardware Element—includes various hardware devicescomprising multiple programmable function blocks connected via aprogrammable interconnect. Examples include FPGAs (Field ProgrammableGate Arrays), PLDs (Programmable Logic Devices), FPOAs (FieldProgrammable Object Arrays), and CPLDs (Complex PLDs). The programmablefunction blocks may range from fine grained (combinatorial logic or lookup tables) to coarse grained (arithmetic logic units or processorcores). A programmable hardware element may also be referred to as“reconfigurable logic”.

Computer System—any of various types of computing or processing systems,including a personal computer system (PC), mainframe computer system,workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance, personal digitalassistant (PDA), television system, grid computing system, or otherdevice or combinations of devices. In general, the term “computersystem” can be broadly defined to encompass any device (or combinationof devices) having at least one processor that executes instructionsfrom a memory medium.

User Equipment (UE) (or “UE Device”)—any of various types of computersystems devices that are mobile or portable and that performs wirelesscommunications. Examples of UE devices include mobile telephones orsmart phones (e.g., iPhone™, Android™-based phones), portable gamingdevices (e.g., Nintendo DS™, Play Station Portable™, Gameboy Advance™,iPhone™), laptops, wearable devices (e.g. smart watch, smart glasses),PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices, orother handheld devices, etc. In general, the term “UE” or “UE device”can be broadly defined to encompass any electronic, computing, and/ortelecommunications device (or combination of devices) that is easilytransported by a user and capable of wireless communication.

Wireless Device—any of various types of computer system devices whichperforms wireless communications. A wireless device can be portable (ormobile) or may be stationary or fixed at a certain location. A UE is anexample of a wireless device.

Communication Device—any of various types of computer systems or devicesthat perform communications, where the communications can be wired orwireless. A communication device can be portable (or mobile) or may bestationary or fixed at a certain location. A wireless device is anexample of a communication device. A UE is another example of acommunication device.

Base Station—The term “Base Station” has the full breadth of itsordinary meaning, and at least includes a wireless communication stationinstalled at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of awireless telephone system or radio system.

Processing Element—refers to various elements or combinations ofelements. Processing elements include, for example, circuits such as anASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), portions or circuits ofindividual processor cores, entire processor cores, individualprocessors, programmable hardware devices such as a field programmablegate array (FPGA), and/or larger portions of systems that includemultiple processors.

Channel—a medium used to convey information from a sender (transmitter)to a receiver. It should be noted that since characteristics of the term“channel” may differ according to different wireless protocols, the term“channel” as used herein may be considered as being used in a mannerthat is consistent with the standard of the type of device withreference to which the term is used. In some standards, channel widthsmay be variable (e.g., depending on device capability, band conditions,etc.). For example, LTE may support scalable channel bandwidths from 1.4MHz to 20 MHz. In contrast, WLAN channels may be 22 MHz wide whileBluetooth channels may be 1 Mhz wide. Other protocols and standards mayinclude different definitions of channels. Furthermore, some standardsmay define and use multiple types of channels, e.g., different channelsfor uplink or downlink and/or different channels for different uses suchas data, control information, etc.

Band—The term “band” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning, andat least includes a section of spectrum (e.g., radio frequency spectrum)in which channels are used or set aside for the same purpose.

Automatically—refers to an action or operation performed by a computersystem (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or device (e.g.,circuitry, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.), without userinput directly specifying or performing the action or operation. Thusthe term “automatically” is in contrast to an operation being manuallyperformed or specified by the user, where the user provides input todirectly perform the operation. An automatic procedure may be initiatedby input provided by the user, but the subsequent actions that areperformed “automatically” are not specified by the user, i.e., are notperformed “manually”, where the user specifies each action to perform.For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting eachfield and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typinginformation, selecting check boxes, radio selections, etc.) is fillingout the form manually, even though the computer system must update theform in response to the user actions. The form may be automaticallyfilled out by the computer system where the computer system (e.g.,software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of theform and fills in the form without any user input specifying the answersto the fields. As indicated above, the user may invoke the automaticfilling of the form, but is not involved in the actual filling of theform (e.g., the user is not manually specifying answers to fields butrather they are being automatically completed). The presentspecification provides various examples of operations beingautomatically performed in response to actions the user has taken.

IEEE 802.11—refers to technology based on IEEE 802.11 wireless standardssuch as 802.11a, 802.11.b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11-2012, 802.11ac,and/or other IEEE 802.11 standards. IEEE 802.11 technology may also bereferred to as “Wi-Fi” or “wireless local area network (WLAN)”technology.

Configured to—Various components may be described as “configured to”perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, “configured to” is a broadrecitation generally meaning “having structure that” performs the taskor tasks during operation. As such, the component can be configured toperform the task even when the component is not currently performingthat task (e.g., a set of electrical conductors may be configured toelectrically connect a module to another module, even when the twomodules are not connected). In some contexts, “configured to” may be abroad recitation of structure generally meaning “having circuitry that”performs the task or tasks during operation. As such, the component canbe configured to perform the task even when the component is notcurrently on. In general, the circuitry that forms the structurecorresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuits.

Various components may be described as performing a task or tasks, forconvenience in the description. Such descriptions should be interpretedas including the phrase “configured to.” Reciting a component that isconfigured to perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not toinvoke 35 U.S.C. § 112, paragraph six, interpretation for thatcomponent.

FIGS. 1 and 2—Communication System

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem in which aspects of the present disclosure may be implemented,according to some embodiments. It is noted that the system of FIG. 1 isonly one example of a possible system, and embodiments may beimplemented in any of various systems, as desired.

As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a basestation 102A, which can communicate over a transmission medium with oneor more user devices 106A, 106B, etc., through 106N. Each of the userdevices may be referred to herein as a “user equipment” (UE). Thus, theuser devices 106 are referred to as UEs or UE devices.

The base station 102A may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or cellsite (a “cellular base station”), and may include hardware that enableswireless communication with the UEs 106A through 106N. The base station102A may also be equipped to communicate with a network 100 (e.g., acore network of a cellular service provider, a telecommunication networksuch as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and/or the Internet,among various possibilities). Thus, the base station 102A may facilitatecommunication between the user devices and/or between the user devicesand the network 100.

The communication area (or coverage area) of the base station may bereferred to as a “cell.” The base station 102A and the UEs 106 may beconfigured to communicate over the transmission medium using any ofvarious radio access technologies (RATs), also referred to as wirelesscommunication technologies, or telecommunication standards, such as GSM,UMTS (WCDMA, TD-SCDMA), LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g.,1×RTT, NEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, WiMAX etc.

Additionally, one or more access points (such as access point 104) maybe communicatively coupled to the network 100, and may be withincommunicative range of one or more UEs 106. These may include Wi-Fiaccess points configured to support cellular network offloading and/orotherwise provide wireless communication services as part of thewireless communication system illustrated in FIG. 1. Such access pointsmay be collocated with a cellular base station or may be deployedseparately from any cellular base stations, as desired. In someinstances (e.g., for network-deployed access points), such an accesspoint may have a backhaul communication reference point with a basestation, such as illustrated between access point 104 and base station102A.

Base station 102A and other similar base stations (such as base stations102B . . . 102N) and/or access points (such as access point 104)operating according to the same or a different wireless communicationstandard may thus be provided as a network of cells, which may providecontinuous or nearly continuous overlapping service to UEs 106A-N andsimilar devices over a wide geographic area via one or more wirelesscommunication standards.

Thus, while base station 102A may act as a “serving cell” for UEs 106A-Nas illustrated in FIG. 1, each UE 106 may also be capable of receivingsignals from (and possibly within communication range of) one or moreother cells (which might be provided by base stations 102B-N and/or anyother base stations) and/or wireless local area networks (WLANs), whichmay be referred to as “neighboring cells” or “neighboring WLANs” (e.g.,as appropriate), and/or more generally as “neighbors”. Such neighborsmay also be capable of facilitating communication between user devicesand/or between user devices and the network 100. Such neighbors mayinclude “macro” cells, “micro” cells, “pico” cells, “femto” cells,WLANs, and/or cells that provide any of various other granularities ofservice area size. For example, base stations 102A-102B illustrated inFIG. 1 might provide macro cells, base station 102N might provide amicro cell, and access point 104 might be a Wi-Fi AP that provides aWLAN. Other configurations are also possible.

Note that a UE 106 may be capable of communicating using multiplewireless communication standards. For example, a UE 106 might beconfigured to communicate using two or more of GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000,WiMAX, LTE, LTE-A, WLAN, Bluetooth, one or more global navigationalsatellite systems (GNSS, e.g., GPS or GLONASS), one and/or more mobiletelevision broadcasting standards (e.g., ATSC-M/H or DVB-H), etc. Othercombinations of wireless communication standards (including more thantwo wireless communication standards) are also possible.

FIG. 2 illustrates user equipment 106 (e.g., one of the devices 106Athrough 106N) in communication with a base station 102 (e.g., one of thebase stations 102A through 102N), according to some embodiments. The UE106 may be a device with cellular communication capability such as amobile phone, a hand-held device, a wearable device, a computer or atablet, or virtually any type of wireless device.

The UE 106 may include a processor that is configured to execute programinstructions stored in memory. The UE 106 may perform any of the methodembodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions.Alternatively, or in addition, the UE 106 may include a programmablehardware element such as an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) that isconfigured to perform any of the method embodiments described herein, orany portion of any of the method embodiments described herein.

The UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using oneor more wireless communication protocols or technologies. In someembodiments, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate using, forexample, CDMA2000 (1×RTT/1×EV-DO/HRPD/eHRPD) or LTE using a singleshared radio and/or GSM or LTE using the single shared radio. The sharedradio may couple to a single antenna, or may couple to multiple antennas(e.g., for MIMO) for performing wireless communications. In general, aradio may include any combination of a baseband processor, analog RFsignal processing circuitry (e.g., including filters, mixers,oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digital processing circuitry (e.g.,for digital modulation as well as other digital processing). Similarly,the radio may implement one or more receive and transmit chains usingthe aforementioned hardware. For example, the UE 106 may share one ormore parts of a receive and/or transmit chain between multiple wirelesscommunication technologies, such as those discussed above.

In some embodiments, the UE 106 may include separate transmit and/orreceive chains (e.g., including separate RF and/or digital radiocomponents) for each wireless communication protocol with which it isconfigured to communicate. As a further possibility, the UE 106 mayinclude one or more radios that are shared between multiple wirelesscommunication protocols, and one or more radios that are usedexclusively by a single wireless communication protocol. For example,the UE 106 might include a shared radio for communicating using eitherof LTE or 1×RTT (or LTE or GSM), and separate radios for communicatingusing each of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Other configurations are alsopossible.

FIG. 3—Exemplary Block Diagram of a UE

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a UE 106, according tosome embodiments. As shown, the UE 106 may include a system on chip(SOC) 300, which may include portions for various purposes. For example,as shown, the SOC 300 may include processor(s) 302 that may executeprogram instructions for the UE 106 and display circuitry 304 that mayperform graphics processing and provide display signals to the display360. The processor(s) 302 may also be coupled to memory management unit(MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addresses from theprocessor(s) 302 and translate those addresses to locations in memory(e.g., memory 306, read only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310)and/or to other circuits or devices, such as the display circuitry 304,wireless communication circuitry 330, I/F 320, and/or display 360. TheMMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protection and page tabletranslation or set up. In some embodiments, the MMU 340 may be includedas a portion of the processor(s) 302.

As shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of the UE106. For example, the UE 106 may include various types of memory (e.g.,including NAND flash 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., for couplingto a computer system, dock, charging station, etc.), the display 360,and wireless communication circuitry 330 (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A,CDMA2000, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc.).

As shown, the UE device 106 may include at least one antenna (andpossibly multiple antennas, e.g., for MIMO and/or for implementingdifferent wireless communication technologies, among variouspossibilities), for performing wireless communication with basestations, access points, and/or other devices. For example, the UEdevice 106 may use antenna(s) 335 to perform the wireless communication.

The UE 106 may also include and/or be configured for use with one ormore user interface elements. The user interface elements may includeany of various elements, such as display 360 (which may be a touchscreendisplay), a keyboard (which may be a discrete keyboard or may beimplemented as part of a touchscreen display), a mouse, a microphoneand/or speakers, one or more cameras, one or more buttons, and/or any ofvarious other elements capable of providing information to a user and/orreceiving/interpreting user input.

As described further subsequently herein, the UE 106 may includehardware and software components for implementing part or all of themethods described herein. The processor 302 of the UE device 106 may beconfigured to implement part or all of the methods described herein,e.g., by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g.,a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In other embodiments,processor 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, suchas an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or as an ASIC (ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit). Alternatively (or in addition) theprocessor 302 of the UE device 106, in conjunction with one or more ofthe other components 300, 304, 306, 310, 320, 330, 335, 340, 350, 360may be configured to implement part or all of the features describedherein.

FIG. 4—Exemplary Block Diagram of a Base Station

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a base station 102,according to some embodiments. It is noted that the base station of FIG.4 is merely one example of a possible base station. As shown, the basestation 102 may include processor(s) 404, which may execute programinstructions for the base station 102. The processor(s) 404 may also becoupled to memory management unit (MMU) 440, which may be configured toreceive addresses from the processor(s) 404 and translate thoseaddresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read only memory(ROM) 450) or to other circuits or devices.

The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. Thenetwork port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network andprovide a plurality of devices, such as UE devices 106, access to thetelephone network as described above in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also oralternatively be configured to couple to a cellular network, e.g., acore network of a cellular service provider. The core network mayprovide mobility related services and/or other services to a pluralityof devices, such as UE devices 106. In some cases, the network port 470may couple to a telephone network via the core network, and/or the corenetwork may provide a telephone network (e.g., among other UE devicesserviced by the cellular service provider).

The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434, and possiblymultiple antennas. The antenna(s) 434 may be configured to operate as awireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate withUE devices 106 via wireless communication circuitry (e.g., radio) 430.The antenna(s) 434 communicates with the wireless communicationcircuitry 430 via communication chain 432. Communication chain 432 maybe a receive chain, a transmit chain or both. The radio 430 may beconfigured to communicate via various wireless telecommunicationstandards, including, but not limited to, LTE, LTE-A, GSM, UMTS,CDMA2000, Wi-Fi, etc.

The BS 102 may be configured to communicate wirelessly using multiplewireless communication standards. In some instances, the base station102 may include multiple radios, which may enable the base station 102to communicate according to multiple wireless communicationtechnologies. For example, as one possibility, the base station 102 mayinclude an LTE radio for performing communication according to LTE aswell as a Wi-Fi radio for performing communication according to Wi-Fi.In such a case, the base station 102 may be capable of operating aseither or both of an LTE base station and a Wi-Fi access point. Asanother possibility, the base station 102 may include a multi-mode radiothat is capable of performing communications according to any ofmultiple wireless communication technologies (e.g., LTE and Wi-Fi, LTEand UMTS, etc.).

The BS 102 may include hardware and software components for implementingpart or all of the methods described herein. The processor 404 of thebase station 102 may be configured to implement part or all of themethods described herein, e.g., by executing program instructions storedon a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memorymedium). Alternatively, the processor 404 may be configured as aprogrammable hardware element, such as an FPGA (Field Programmable GateArray), or as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or acombination thereof. Alternatively (or in addition) the processor 404 ofthe BS 102, in conjunction with one or more of the other components 430,432, 434, 440, 450, 460, 470 may be configured to implement part or allof the features described herein.

FIGS. 5-11

As previously noted, it is increasingly common for wireless devices tobe equipped with the capability to communicate using multiple wirelesscommunication technologies. For example, many smart phones are able tocommunicate using both IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networking (WLAN)and 3GPP (LTE/UMTS/GSM) and/or 3GPP2 (CDMA2000/cdmaOne) cellular radiointerfaces, such that a user of such a device may be able to use acellular data connection simultaneously with a WLAN connection.

Furthermore, increasingly small cells with collocated WLAN/cellularinterface are being deployed by cellular network operators. In suchcases, operator provided WLAN access points may be used for trafficoffloading, for example with 3GPP traffic offloading and interworkingmechanisms between cellular and WLAN base stations and access points.Techniques for providing integrated cellular and WLAN dual connectivity,in conjunction with collocated operator deployed WLAN/cellular cells andmore generally, may improve user throughput, Quality of Service, andnetwork utilization/radio resource efficiency. As examples, LTE-WLANAggregation (LWA) and LTE-WLAN integration with Internet Protocolsecurity tunnel (LWIP) procedures may respectively provide PDCP andIPSec based data path aggregation of LTE and WLAN radio resources. Notethat in some instances, LWA may alternatively be referred to as WLAN-LTEaggregation or WLA.

Such dual connectivity may be facilitated by providing for a cellularbase station to act as an anchor point for aggregating radio resourcesaccording to multiple wireless communication technologies. FIGS. 5-6illustrate possible example scenarios in which multi-RAT radio resourceaggregation may be implemented, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates a scenario in an exemplary 3GPP network deployment inwhich a cellular base station (LTE/UMTS eNB) and a 3GPP network operatordeployed Wi-Fi access point have overlapping coverage area but arenot-collocated, according to some embodiments.

As shown, a serving gateway (S-GW) 502 in a cellular core network mayhave data 504 to send to a wireless user equipment device 514. The S-GW502 may have a backhaul connection with the eNB 506, which may provideradio resources to the UE 514 according to a cellular (e.g., LTE orUMTS) radio interface and be an anchor point for radio resourceaggregation for the UE 514. The eNB 506 may also have a backhaulconnection with the AP 512, which in turn may provide radio resources tothe UE 514 according to a WLAN (Wi-Fi) radio interface. The cellular andWi-Fi radio resources may be aggregated using LWA or LWIP, among variouspossibilities.

As shown, of the data 504, a first portion 508 may be transmitted to theUE 514 by the eNB 506 directly by way of the cellular radio interfacebetween the UE 514 and the eNB 506. A second portion 510 may beredirected by the eNB 506 to the AP 512, which may in turn transmit thesecond portion 510 to the UE 514 by way of the WLAN radio interfacebetween the UE 514 and the AP 512. The UE 514 may thus receive both thefirst portion 508 and the second portion 510 such that all of the data504 is recovered by the UE 514.

Note that as one possibility, the data 504 may all be associated with asingle radio bearer that may be in a split bearer configuration suchthat the portions 508, 510 may be transmitted using different radiointerfaces. As a further possibility, the data 504 may include dataassociated with multiple radio bearers. For example, the first portion508 may be associated with a radio bearer that is not offloaded or splitbut exclusively uses the cellular radio interface, while the secondportion 510 may be associated with a different radio bearer that isoffloaded to the WLAN interface.

FIG. 6 illustrates a possible multi-RAT radio resource aggregationscenario in an exemplary 3GPP network deployment in which a cellularbase station (LTE/UMTS small cell) and a 3GPP network operator deployedWi-Fi access point have overlapping coverage area and are collocated,according to some embodiments.

As shown, a serving gateway (S-GW) 602 in a cellular core network mayhave data 604 to send to a wireless user equipment device 614. The S-GW602 may have a backhaul connection with the small cell 606, which mayprovide radio resources to the UE 614 according to a cellular (e.g., LTEor UMTS) radio interface and be an anchor point for radio resourceaggregation for the UE 614. The small cell 606 may also have a backhaulconnection with the AP 612, which it turn may provide radio resources tothe UE 614 according to a WLAN (Wi-Fi) radio interface. The cellular andWi-Fi radio resources may be aggregated using LWA or LWIP, among variouspossibilities.

Much as in the scenario of FIG. 5, of the data 604, a first portion 608may be transmitted to the UE 614 by the small cell 606 directly by wayof the cellular radio interface between the UE 614 and the small cell606. A second portion 610 may be redirected by the small cell 606 to theAP 612, which may in turn transmit the second portion 610 to the UE 614by way of the WLAN radio interface between the UE 614 and the AP 612.The UE 614 may thus receive both the first portion 608 and the secondportion 610 such that all of the data 604 is recovered by the UE 614.

Similarly as described with respect to FIG. 5, the data 604 may all beassociated with a single radio bearer that may be in a split bearerconfiguration such that the portions 608, 610 may be transmitted usingdifferent radio interfaces, or may include data associated with multipleradio bearers, of which one may be offloaded and one may not beoffloaded, among various possibilities.

FIG. 7 is a communication/signal flow diagram illustrating an exemplarycall flow to set up radio resource aggregation of LTE and Wi-Firesources according to LWA. Such a procedure may, for example, be usedin a network deployment scenario such as illustrated in and describedwith respect to either or both of FIGS. 5-6. Note that while theexemplary signal flow of FIG. 7 is intended to be illustrative of onepossible signal flow that can be used to set up radio resourceaggregation of LTE and Wi-Fi resources, other signal flows (e.g.,including variations of the LWA signal flow of FIG. 7 or alternativesignal flows, such as signal flows for establishing LWIP based LTE-Wi-Firadio resource aggregation) can also be used.

As shown, in 712, an eNB 702 may initially send a UE capability enquiryto a UE 706 served by the eNB 702. In 714, the UE 706 may respond withUE capability information, which may indicate that the UE 706 is capableof aggregation of cellular and Wi-Fi radio resources. In 716, the eNB702 may provide a RRC connection reconfiguration message to the UE 706,which may trigger the UE 706 to attempt to discover any WLANs suitablefor radio resource aggregation by the eNB 702 (e.g., WLANs provided bywireless terminals deployed by the same network operator that operatesthe eNB 702). In 718, the UE 706 may respond with an RRC connectionreconfiguration complete message, and may perform WLAN informationacquisition for potentially available WLANs in 720. Based on this WLANinformation acquisition, in 722, the UE 706 may provide a measurementreport to the eNB 702.

In 724, based on the measurement report, the eNB 702 may provide a Wi-Fiterminal (WT) addition request to a selected WT 704. In 726, the WT 704may respond with a WT addition request acknowledgement. In 728, the eNB702 may follow up by providing a RRC connection reconfiguration messageto the UE 706, e.g., to indicate to the UE 706 to associate with theselected WT 704. In 730, the UE 706 may respond with a RRC connectionreconfiguration complete message, and may form a WLAN association withthe WT 704 in 732. Once the UE 706 has completed the WLAN associationwith the WT 704, in 734, the WT 704 may also confirm that completion ofthe WLAN association between the UE 706 and the WT 704 by providing a WTassociation confirmation message to the eNB 702.

FIG. 8 illustrates a network deployment scenario similar to the scenarioillustrated in and described with respect to FIG. 5, e.g., in which acellular base station and a network operator deployed Wi-Fi access pointhave overlapping coverage area but are not-collocated. Additionally, inthis scenario one or more additional devices 816 (e.g., laptop computer,smart watch, etc.) may be within communication range of the wirelessdevice 814. As a result, there may be occasions on which the wirelessdevice 814 wishes to perform communication with one or more of theadditional devices 816 as well as occasions on which the wireless device814 wishes to perform communication with the cellular network.

However, at least in some instances, once LWA or LWIP is configured, theWi-Fi interface/chipset in the UE may be under the control of the eNBand may be used exclusively for LTE aggregation. If the UE has a singleWi-Fi interface, this may limit the ability of the UE to performconcurrent Wi-Fi activities (e.g., using Apple Wireless Direct Link(AWDL), Wi-Fi peer-to-peer, or other Wi-Fi based communication), such asconnecting to another device to perform short data transmissions and/orproviding continuity services, probing other frequencies as part ofWi-Fi AP scan procedures, etc.

In other words, such ‘micro’ or ‘mini’ transactions may not currently bepossible without ending an aggregation session. FIG. 9 illustrates acommunication flow scenario in which such a scenario plays out,including terminating an LWA aggregation session and disconnecting fromthe Wi-Fi Terminal (WT) (e.g., the access point used for LWAaggregation) prior to performing the micro transaction, then startingthe LWA aggregation procedure anew after completion of the microtransaction.

As shown, in such a scenario, after initially establishing an LWAaggretation session such as according to the method of FIG. 7 andcommunicating data to the UE 906 aggregated between the WT 904 and theeNB 902, in 912 the UE 906 may determine that it has one or more otherWi-Fi transactions to perform, e.g., with a watch, tablet, laptop,and/or another such wireless device, indicated in FIG. 9 simply as‘other device 908’ for convenience.

In order to connect with the other device 908 for the Wi-Fi dataexchange while the aggregation session is in place, in 914, the UE 906may send a status indication to the eNB indicating ‘Wi-Fi not ready’, inresponse to which the eNB may decide to end the aggregation session,and, in 916, may provide an indication to the WT 904 to initiate a WTremove procedure, and in 918, may send a RRCConnectionReconfigurationmessage to the UE 906 to disable aggregation. In 920, the UE 906 mayconfirm to the eNB 902 that RRC connection reconfiguration is complete,and in 922, the UE 906 may then perform the ‘micro transaction’ with theother device 908.

Following the ‘micro transaction’, there may be no way to resume the LWAaggregation session, and so the UE 906 may attempt to start a new LWAaggregation session. For example, in 924, the UE 906 may provide an RRCWi-Fi status indication to the eNB 902 indicating that Wi-Fi is readyfor the UE 906; in 926, the eNB 902 may provide a RRC connectionreconfiguration message to the UE 906; in 928, the UE 906 may respondwith a RRC connection reconfiguration complete message; in 930, the UE906 may perform WLAN measurements; in 932, the UE 906 may provide ameasurement report to the eNB 902; in 934, the eNB 902 may provide a WTaddition request to the WT 904; in 936, the WT 904 may provide a WTaddition request acknowledgement to the eNB 902; in 938, the eNB 902 mayprovide a RRC connection reconfiguration message to the UE 906; in 940,the UE 906 may respond with a RRC connection reconfiguration completemessage; and in 942, the UE 906 may perform WLAN association with the WT904.

As an alternative, according to some embodiments, radio resourceaggregation suspend and resume procedures may be available. Suchprocedures may allow a wireless device and a base station to suspend aradio resource aggregation session without terminating the sessionentirely. Note that such procedures may be used in conjunction witheither or both of LWA or LWIP, and/or with other techniques for handlingaggregation of radio resources according to multiple wirelesscommunication technologies.

For example, according to some embodiments, a first wireless device anda base station may establish a communication link that aggregates radioresources according to a first wireless communication technology (e.g.,a cellular communication technology such as LTE or UMTS) and a secondwireless communication technology (e.g., a wireless local areanetworking technology such as Wi-Fi). The communication link mayaggregate radio resources according to LWA, LWIP, or any other techniquefor aggregating radio resources of multiple wireless communicationtechnologies. At some point, the first wireless device may determine to(e.g., temporarily) suspend radio resource aggregation (e.g., suspenduse of radio resources according to the second wireless communicationtechnology by the communication link), for example in order to performsome wireless communication activity according to the second wirelesscommunication technology that is not associated with the communicationlink. As one possibility, the wireless communication activity accordingto the second wireless communication technology could include a wirelesscommunication transaction (e.g., for synchronization, continuityservices, etc.) with a second wireless device according to the secondwireless communication technology. As another possibility, the wirelesscommunication activity according to the second wireless communicationtechnology could include scanning/probing for alternativeservices/networks available according to the second wirelesscommunication technology, such as according to Wi-Fi AP scanningprocedures.

Note that, according to some embodiments, the first wireless device maydetermine to suspend the radio resource aggregation of the communicationlink based on a decision whether to temporarily suspend the radioresource aggregation of the communication link or to terminate the radioresource aggregation of the communication link, in order to perform theother wireless communication activity. For example, depending on thescope of the other wireless communication activity, in some scenarios itmay make sense to terminate the radio resource aggregation sessionaltogether (e.g., if the wireless communication activity is expected totake a longer time, such as a length of time above an expected lengththreshold), while in other scenarios it may make sense to temporarilysuspend the radio resource aggregation session (e.g., if the wirelesscommunication activity is expected to take a shorter time, such as alength of time below an expected length threshold) such that the radioresource aggregation session can be easily resumed after the otherwireless communication activity is complete.

In order to suspend the radio resource aggregation of the communicationlink with the base station, the first wireless device may indicate tothe base station (e.g., by way of the first wireless communicationtechnology) to suspend the radio resource aggregation of thecommunication link with the base station. In some instances, the firstwireless device may more particularly indicate to the base station tosuspend use of radio resources according to the second wirelesscommunication technology (e.g., allowing the continued use of the firstwireless communication technology and potentially any othercommunication technologies used in conjunction with the communicationlink). In response, the base station may cease communicating data withthe first wireless device using radio resources according to the secondwireless communication technology (e.g., may communicate data using justradio resources according to the first wireless communication technologywhile radio resource aggregation is suspended). Note that the basestation and the first wireless device may maintain their radio resourceswith each other according to the second wireless communicationtechnology even while their use is suspended. For example, the firstwireless device can remain associated with an access point (which may inturn be coupled to or comprised in the base station) providing radioresources to the first wireless device according to the second wirelesscommunication technology as part of the radio resource aggregation ofthe communication link with the base station.

The first wireless device may perform the wireless communicationactivity (e.g., performing wireless communication with the secondwireless device according to the second wireless communicationtechnology, performing Wi-Fi AP scan procedures, etc.) while radioresource aggregation of the communication link with the base station issuspended/use of radio resources according to the second wirelesscommunication technology by the communication link with the base stationis suspended.

Once the wireless communication activity according to the secondwireless communication technology is complete, the first wireless devicemay indicate (e.g., by way of the first wireless communicationtechnology) to resume the radio resource aggregation of thecommunication link with the base station. In some instances, the firstwireless device may more particularly indicate to the base station toresume use of radio resources according to the second wirelesscommunication technology for the communication link between the basestation and the first wireless device. In response, the base station mayresume communicating data with the first wireless device using radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology(e.g., may communicate data using both radio resources according to thefirst wireless communication technology and the second wirelesscommunication technology). Note that, at least in some instances,resuming radio resource aggregation of the communication link with thebase station may be a simpler process than initially establishing radioresource aggregation for the communication link with the base station(e.g., since the radio resources according to the second wirelesscommunication technology may have been maintained while radio resourceaggregation of the communication link with the base station wassuspended). For example, the resume process may take less time, involvefewer signaling messages between the first wireless device and the basestation (and possibly the access point), and/or otherwise be simplifiedrelative to the initial radio resource aggregation establishmentprocedure.

FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate example communication flows in exemplary LWAscenarios in which the first wireless communication technology is LTEand the second wireless communication technology is Wi-Fi.

In the scenario illustrated in FIG. 10, suspend/resume procedures may beinvoked by way of RRC messages exchanged between the first wirelessdevice and the base station. As shown, after initially establishing anLWA aggretation session such as according to the method of FIG. 7 andcommunicating data to the UE 1006 aggregated between the WT 1004 and theeNB 1002, in 1012 the UE 1006 may determine that it has one or moreother Wi-Fi transactions to perform, e.g., with a watch, tablet, laptop,and/or another such wireless device, indicated in FIG. 10 simply as‘other device 1008’ for convenience.

In order to connect with the other device 1008 for the Wi-Fi dataexchange while the aggregation session is in place, in 1014, the UE 1006and the eNB 1002 may exchange RRC LWA Suspend Request and RRC LWASuspend Complete messages. Based on this exchange, the eNB 1002 mayrefrain from providing data to the UE 1006 by way of the Wi-Fi linkbetween the UE 1006 and the WT 1004. Note that the WT 1004 and the UE1006 may remain associated (e.g., the UE 1006 may remain a member of thebasic service set (BSS) of the WT 1004) while the LWA session issuspended. While the LWA session is suspended, in 1016, the UE 1006 mayperform its wireless transaction with the other device 1008 via Wi-Ficommunication. Once the wireless transaction is complete, in 1018, theUE 1006 and the eNB 1002 may exchange RRC LWA Resume Request and RRC LWASuspend Complete messages. Based on this exchange, the eNB 1002 mayresume providing data to the UE 1006 by way of the Wi-Fi link betweenthe UE 1006 and the WT 1004. Since the WT 1004 and the UE 1006 may haveremained associated throughout, the UE 1006 may be able to avoid any orall of performing Wi-Fi measurements, reporting those measurements tothe eNB 1002, or performing signaling to associate with the WT 1004 toresume the LWA session.

Note that while according to the scenario of FIG. 10 RRC LWASuspend/Resume Request/Complete messages are used to request andacknowledge suspension and resumption of LWA aggregation, any number ofother RRC messages could also or alternatively be used for signaling LWAaggregation suspension and resumption, as desired. For example, anotherway for a UE to request to Suspend/Resume LWA aggregation could includereusing a WLAN status indication RRC message. In such a case, thismessage may carry a new cause value that indicates to the eNB that theUE requests to suspend or resume Wi-Fi aggregation.

In the scenario illustrated in FIG. 11, suspend/resume procedures may beinvoked by way of MAC messages (e.g., using reserved LCID values todefine the new control elements, and/or reusing or repurposing existingcontrol elements). As shown, after initially establishing an LWAaggretation session such as according to the method of FIG. 7 andcommunicating data to the UE 1106 aggregated between the WT 1104 and theeNB 1102, in 1112 the UE 1106 may determine that it has one or moreother Wi-Fi transactions to perform, e.g., with a watch, tablet, laptop,and/or another such wireless device, indicated in FIG. 11 simply as‘other device 1108’ for convenience.

In order to connect with the other device 1108 for the Wi-Fi dataexchange while the aggregation session is in place, in 1114, the UE 1106and the eNB 1102 may exchange MAC CE LWA Suspend Request and MAC CE LWASuspend Complete messages. Based on this exchange, the eNB 1102 mayrefrain from providing data to the UE 1106 by way of the Wi-Fi linkbetween the UE 1106 and the WT 1104. Note that the WT 1104 and the UE1106 may remain associated (e.g., the UE 1106 may remain a member of theBSS of the WT 1104) while the LWA session is suspended. While the LWAsession is suspended, in 1116, the UE 1106 may perform its wirelesstransaction with the other device 1108 via Wi-Fi communication. Once thewireless transaction is complete, in 1118, the UE 1106 and the eNB 1102may exchange MAC CE LWA Resume Request and MAC CE LWA Suspend Completemessages. Based on this exchange, the eNB 1102 may resume providing datato the UE 1106 by way of the Wi-Fi link between the UE 1106 and the WT1104. Since the WT 1104 and the UE 1106 may have remained associatedthroughout, the UE 1106 may be able to avoid any or all of performingWi-Fi measurements, reporting those measurements to the eNB 1102, orperforming signaling to associate with the WT 1104 to resume the LWAsession.

Note that while the communication flows of FIGS. 10-11 relate tosignaling messages that could be used to provide suspend/resume supportspecifically with respect to LWA sessions for illustrative purposes, itshould be recognized that such signaling messages and suspend/resumesupport are not limited to LWA implementations, and that similar typesof signaling messages (e.g., including various types of RRC messagesand/or MAC CEs) may also or alternatively be used in conjunction withLWIP sessions and/or other types of LTE/Wi-Fi aggregation sessions toprovide suspend/resume support.

In the following further exemplary embodiments are provided.

One set of embodiments may include a method, comprising: by a firstwireless device: establishing a communication link with a base station,wherein the communication link with a base station aggregates radioresources according to a first wireless communication technology and asecond wireless communication technology; suspending use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology bythe communication link with the base station; performing wirelesscommunication with a second wireless device according to the secondwireless communication technology while use of radio resources accordingto the second wireless communication technology by the communicationlink with the base station is suspended; and resuming use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology bythe communication link with the base station after performing thewireless communication with the second wireless device according to thesecond wireless communication technology.

According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: determiningto perform the wireless communication with the second wireless devicewhile the communication link is aggregating radio resources according tothe first wireless communication technology and the second wirelesscommunication technology; wherein suspending use of radio resourcesaccording to the second wireless communication technology by thecommunication link with the base station is based at least in part ondetermining to perform the wireless communication with the secondwireless device while the communication link is aggregating radioresources according to the first wireless communication technology andthe second wireless communication technology.

According to some embodiments, the radio resources of the communicationlink with the base station according to the second wirelesscommunication technology are maintained while use of radio resourcesaccording to the second wireless communication technology by thecommunication link is suspended.

According to some embodiments, suspending use of radio resourcesaccording to the second wireless communication technology by thecommunication link with the base station comprises indicating to thebase station to use only the radio resources according to the firstwireless communication technology while use of radio resources accordingto the second wireless communication technology is suspended, whereinresuming use of radio resources according to the second wirelesscommunication technology by the communication link with the base stationcomprises indicating to the base station to resume using radio resourcesaccording both the first wireless communication technology and thesecond wireless communication technology.

According to some embodiments, the first wireless communicationtechnology is a cellular communication technology, wherein the secondwireless communication technology is a wireless local area networking(WLAN) technology, wherein establishing the communication link with thebase station comprises establishing a cellular link with the basestation and establishing a WLAN link with an access point coupled to orcomprised in the base station, wherein the WLAN link with the accesspoint is maintained while use of radio resources according to the secondwireless communication technology by the communication link with thebase station is suspended.

Another set of embodiments may include a method, comprising: by a basestation: establishing a communication link with a wireless device,wherein the communication link aggregates radio resources according to afirst wireless communication technology and a second wirelesscommunication technology; receiving an indication from the wirelessdevice to suspend use of radio resources according to the secondwireless communication technology for the communication link with thewireless device; suspending use of radio resources according to thesecond wireless communication technology for the communication link withthe wireless device in response to the indication to suspend use ofradio resources according to the second wireless communicationtechnology for the communication link with the wireless device, whereininformation for aggregating radio resources according to the firstwireless communication technology and the second wireless communicationtechnology is maintained while use of radio resources according to thesecond wireless communication technology for the communication link withthe wireless device is suspended; receiving an indication from thewireless device to resume use of radio resources according to the secondwireless communication technology for the communication link with thewireless device; and resuming use of radio resources according to thesecond wireless communication technology for the communication link withthe wireless device in response to the indication to resume use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device.

Yet another set of embodiments may include a device, comprising: anantenna; a radio operably coupled to the antenna; and a processingelement operably coupled to the radio, wherein the antenna, radio, andprocessing element are configured to implement a method according to anyof the preceding examples.

A further set of embodiments may include an apparatus, comprising aprocessing element configured to implement a method according to any ofthe preceding examples.

A further exemplary set of embodiments may include a non-transitorycomputer accessible memory medium comprising program instructions which,when executed at a device, cause the device to implement any or allparts of any of the preceding examples.

A still further exemplary set of embodiments may include a computerprogram comprising instructions for performing any or all parts of anyof the preceding examples.

Yet another exemplary set of embodiments may include an apparatuscomprising means for performing any or all of the elements of any of thepreceding examples.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be realized in any of variousforms. For example some embodiments may be realized as acomputer-implemented method, a computer-readable memory medium, or acomputer system. Other embodiments may be realized using one or morecustom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. Still other embodimentsmay be realized using one or more programmable hardware elements such asFPGAs.

In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable memory mediummay be configured so that it stores program instructions and/or data,where the program instructions, if executed by a computer system, causethe computer system to perform a method, e.g., any of a methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of such subsets.

In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE 106) may be configured toinclude a processor (or a set of processors) and a memory medium, wherethe memory medium stores program instructions, where the processor isconfigured to read and execute the program instructions from the memorymedium, where the program instructions are executable to implement anyof the various method embodiments described herein (or, any combinationof the method embodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of themethod embodiments described herein, or, any combination of suchsubsets). The device may be realized in any of various forms.

Although the embodiments above have been described in considerabledetail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent tothose skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated.It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace allsuch variations and modifications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A base station, comprising: an antenna; a radiooperatively coupled to the antenna; a processing circuitry operativelycoupled to the radio; wherein the antenna, radio, and processingcircuitry are configured to: establish a communication link with awireless device, wherein the communication link aggregates radioresources according to a first wireless communication technology and asecond wireless communication technology, wherein the first wirelesscommunication technology is different from the second wirelesscommunication technology, wherein establishing radio resourceaggregation for the communication link comprises: indicating to thewireless device to perform one or more Wi-Fi acquisition measurementsfor each of one or more Wi-Fi terminals; receiving a measurement reportfrom the wireless device in response to the indication to perform theone or more Wi-Fi acquisition measurements for each of the one or moreWi-Fi terminals; indicating to a selected Wi-Fi terminal to provideWi-Fi radio resources to the wireless device; receiving anacknowledgement from the selected Wi-Fi terminal in response to theindicating to provide Wi-Fi radio resources to the wireless device;indicating to the wireless device to associate with the selected Wi-Fiterminal; receiving an indication from the wireless device that thewireless device is associated with the selected Wi-Fi terminal; andreceiving an indication from the selected Wi-Fi terminal that thewireless device is associated with the selected Wi-Fi terminal; receivean indication from the wireless device to suspend use of radio resourcesaccording to the second wireless communication technology for thecommunication link with the wireless device; suspend use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device in response to theindication to suspend use of radio resources according to the secondwireless communication technology for the communication link with thewireless device; receive an indication from the wireless device toresume use of radio resources according to the second wirelesscommunication technology for the communication link with the wirelessdevice; and resume use of radio resources according to the secondwireless communication technology for the communication link with thewireless device in response to the indication to resume use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device.
 2. The base station ofclaim 1, wherein information for aggregating radio resources accordingto the first wireless communication technology and the second wirelesscommunication technology is maintained while use of radio resourcesaccording to the second wireless communication technology for thecommunication link with the wireless device is suspended, wherein theinformation for aggregating radio resources according to the firstwireless communication technology and the second wireless communicationtechnology is used by the base station when resuming use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device.
 3. The base station ofclaim 1, wherein the indication to suspend use of radio resourcesaccording to the second wireless communication technology for thecommunication link with the wireless device is received using the firstwireless communication technology, wherein the indication to resume useof radio resources according to the second wireless communicationtechnology for the communication link with the wireless device isreceived using the first wireless communication technology.
 4. The basestation of claim 1, wherein resuming use of radio resources according tothe second wireless communication technology comprises a simplifiedprocedure relative to establishing radio resource aggregation for thecommunication link.
 5. The base station of claim 1, wherein the firstwireless communication technology comprises long term evolution (LTE),wherein the second wireless communication technology comprises wirelesslocal area networking (WLAN), wherein to establish radio resourceaggregation for the communication link, the antenna, radio, andprocessing circuitry are further configured to utilize one of LTE-WLANAggregation (LWA) or LTE-WLAN integration with Internet Protocolsecurity tunnel (LWIP).
 6. The base station of claim 1, wherein saidreceiving an indication from the wireless device to suspend use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device is based on a length oftime of a wireless communication by the wireless device with anotherwireless device using the second communication technology.
 7. The basestation of claim 1, wherein said receiving the indication from thewireless device to suspend use of radio resources according to thesecond wireless communication technology for the communication link withthe wireless device is based on a length of time of a different wirelesscommunication of the wireless device using the second communicationtechnology being less than a threshold length of time.
 8. A method ofoperating a base station, comprising: by a base station: establishing acommunication link with a wireless device, wherein the communicationlink aggregates radio resources according to a first wirelesscommunication technology and a second wireless communication technology,wherein the first wireless communication technology is different fromthe second wireless communication technology, wherein establishing radioresource aggregation for the communication link comprises: indicating tothe wireless device to perform one or more Wi-Fi acquisitionmeasurements for each of one or more Wi-Fi terminals; receiving ameasurement report from the wireless device in response to theindication to perform the one or more Wi-Fi acquisition measurements foreach of the one or more Wi-Fi terminals; indicating to a selected Wi-Fiterminal to provide Wi-Fi radio resources to the wireless device;receiving an acknowledgement from the selected Wi-Fi terminal inresponse to the indicating to provide Wi-Fi radio resources to thewireless device; indicating to the wireless device to associate with theselected Wi-Fi terminal; receiving an indication from the wirelessdevice that the wireless device is associated with the selected Wi-Fiterminal; and receiving an indication from the selected Wi-Fi terminalthat the wireless device is associated with the selected Wi-Fi terminal;receiving an indication from the wireless device to suspend use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device; suspending use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device in response to theindication to suspend use of radio resources according to the secondwireless communication technology for the communication link with thewireless device; receiving an indication from the wireless device toresume use of radio resources according to the second wirelesscommunication technology for the communication link with the wirelessdevice; and resuming use of radio resources according to the secondwireless communication technology for the communication link with thewireless device in response to the indication to resume use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device.
 9. The method of claim8, wherein said suspending use of the radio resources according to thesecond wireless communication technology comprises maintaininginformation for aggregating radio resources according to the firstwireless communication technology and the second wireless communicationtechnology, wherein said resuming use of the radio resources accordingto the second wireless communication technology comprises using theinformation for aggregating radio resources according to the firstwireless communication technology and the second wireless communicationtechnology.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the indication to suspenduse of radio resources according to the second wireless communicationtechnology for the communication link with the wireless device isreceived using the first wireless communication technology, wherein theindication to resume use of radio resources according to the secondwireless communication technology for the communication link with thewireless device is received using the first wireless communicationtechnology.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein resuming use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technologycomprises a simplified procedure relative to establishing radio resourceaggregation for the communication link.
 12. The method of claim 8,wherein the first wireless communication technology comprises long termevolution (LTE), wherein the second wireless communication technologycomprises wireless local area networking (WLAN), wherein to establishradio resource aggregation for the communication link, the antenna,radio, and processing circuitry are further configured to utilize one ofLTE-WLAN Aggregation (LWA) or LTE-WLAN integration with InternetProtocol security tunnel (LWIP).
 13. The method of claim 8, wherein saidreceiving an indication from the wireless device to suspend use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device is based on a length oftime of a wireless communication by the wireless device with anotherwireless device using the second communication technology.
 14. Themethod of claim 8, wherein said receiving the indication from thewireless device to suspend use of radio resources according to thesecond wireless communication technology for the communication link withthe wireless device is based on a length of time of a different wirelesscommunication of the wireless device using the second communicationtechnology being less than a threshold length of time.
 15. An apparatusfor implementation in a base station, comprising: one or more processingcircuitries, configured to: establish a communication link with awireless device, wherein the communication link aggregates radioresources according to a first wireless communication technology and asecond wireless communication technology, wherein the first wirelesscommunication technology is different from the second wirelesscommunication technology, wherein establishing radio resourceaggregation for the communication link comprises: indicating to thewireless device to perform one or more Wi-Fi acquisition measurementsfor each of one or more Wi-Fi terminals; receiving a measurement reportfrom the wireless device in response to the indication to perform theone or more Wi-Fi acquisition measurements for each of the one or moreWi-Fi terminals; indicating to a selected Wi-Fi terminal to provideWi-Fi radio resources to the wireless device; receiving anacknowledgement from the selected Wi-Fi terminal in response to theindicating; indicating to the wireless device to associate with theselected Wi-Fi terminal; receiving an indication from the wirelessdevice that the wireless device is associated with the selected Wi-Fiterminal; and receiving an indication from the selected Wi-Fi terminalthat the wireless device is associated with the selected Wi-Fi terminal;receive an indication from the wireless device to suspend use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device; suspend use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device in response to theindication to suspend use of radio resources according to the secondwireless communication technology for the communication link with thewireless device; receive an indication from the wireless device toresume use of radio resources according to the second wirelesscommunication technology for the communication link with the wirelessdevice; and resume use of radio resources according to the secondwireless communication technology for the communication link with thewireless device in response to the indication to resume use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device.
 16. The apparatus ofclaim 15, wherein information for aggregating radio resources accordingto the first wireless communication technology and the second wirelesscommunication technology is maintained while use of radio resourcesaccording to the second wireless communication technology for thecommunication link with the wireless device is suspended, wherein theinformation for aggregating radio resources according to the firstwireless communication technology and the second wireless communicationtechnology is used by the base station when resuming use of radioresources according to the second wireless communication technology forthe communication link with the wireless device.
 17. The apparatus ofclaim 15, wherein the indication to suspend use of radio resourcesaccording to the second wireless communication technology for thecommunication link with the wireless device is received using the firstwireless communication technology, wherein the indication to resume useof radio resources according to the second wireless communicationtechnology for the communication link with the wireless device isreceived using the first wireless communication technology.
 18. Theapparatus of claim 15, wherein resuming use of radio resources accordingto the second wireless communication technology comprises a simplifiedprocedure relative to establishing radio resource aggregation for thecommunication link.
 19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the firstwireless communication technology comprises long term evolution (LTE),wherein the second wireless communication technology comprises wirelesslocal area networking (WLAN), wherein to establish radio resourceaggregation for the communication link, the antenna, radio, andprocessing circuitry are further configured to utilize one of LTE-WLANAggregation (LWA) or LTE-WLAN integration with Internet Protocolsecurity tunnel (LWIP).
 20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein saidreceiving the indication from the wireless device to suspend use ofradio resources according to the second wireless communicationtechnology for the communication link with the wireless device is basedon a length of time of a different wireless communication of thewireless device using the second communication technology being lessthan a threshold length of time.